Dream (11 page)

“Jeff, finish the wounded,” Shad managed between wheezing for breath as Fred cut down the last able-bodied Goblin. “Guys, the kettle was an alarm. More are coming.” Using two charms, he Healed the big barbarian while Fred struggled to free his axe from his last kill. One charm went to Jeff and another for himself, while Derek had suffered no more than scratches and a nasty bruise.

“I’m out of arrows,” Derek gasped, red-faced and sweating rivers.

“Get ‘em back,” Shad slumped onto an upright section of tree trunk and methodically ran the point of his sword into every Goblin within reach.

Although as winded as any, Fred methodically hacked the head from the bugbear and set it atop a short log in the hallway twenty feet from the door, with three Goblin lanterns around it.

“Good idea,” Shad nodded as the barbarian slid down the wall to a sitting position. Groaning, the Jinxman struggled to his feet and helped Jeff finish ensuring that none of the Goblins were still alive.

Derek lit three fresh torches from the straw fires and then smothered the blazes with blankets from the Goblin’s bedding.

After a few minutes Jeff roved around the room looking for loot, and Shad found a barrel of fairly clean water and managed to scrub most of the blood from his person and weapons. Fred recovered his throwing axes and kept watch on the hallway.

Shad was just tucking his pant leg back into his boot when the barbarian whistled. Sighing, he took up his sword and shield and limped to the others at the entrance to the room.

“How many arrows do you have?” he asked Derek.

“Six good enough to use. I’m going to take fletching next level, and load Ula with more arrows.”

“Lessons learned.”

The battered four waited, leaning out for quick glances down the hall where dark silhouettes moved and muttered. “How many?” Shard whispered.

Fred shrugged. “Eight? Maybe more or less. Guards from the entrance, I figure.”

“Snipe at ‘em?” Derek asked.

“No, wait and see if Fred’s idea works.”

And it did. Carrying away the lanterns and their leaders’ head, the Goblins moved off down the corridor.

“Freakin’ brilliant,” Jeff slapped Fred on the arm. “We know who is leveling up first this time.”

Shad took a pull on the canteen Derek passed him and then handed it to Fred. “OK, we have a door over there. Jeff, you done looting?”

“Not quite.”

“OK. Derek, you get all your arrows?”

“No.”

“OK, Fred and I will stand watch, you guys look to that. Take your time, I need to catch my breath and get some blood flow going.”

“About a Mark’s worth of small change and some jewelry of no great value,” Jeff reported twenty minutes later.

“You could starve hunting Goblins,” Fred observed.

“Let’s get through that door,” Derek grinned, eyes gleaming.

“Jeff, you’re up,” Shad sighed as he climbed to his feet. “You know, we should decline any reward and just ask to stay a few days, because I’m gonna be crippled tomorrow. I don’t know what caught me in the ribs, but I’m hurting.”

“Yeah,” Fred nodded. “I can’t hardly lift my left arm.”

The Night-grifter studied the crude lock with exaggerated care, then produced the key and opened it. “Found a couple keys on the bugbear.”

The light of their torches illuminated a small room whose original purpose was uncertain. A spike bearing an iron ring had been crudely hammered into the stone, the surrounding areas showing the marks of several missed swings of the hammer, and a length of rusty chain was run through it. The chains ran beneath a ragged, filthy quilt which lay atop a pile of straw. A candle guttering in its own puddled substance and a sour latrine bucket completed the furnishing in that corner.

In the opposite corner squatted a container made from what looked like an ordinary shipping crate inexpertly reinforced by rusting iron bands and extra boards, a large lock wedged into the door-latch that kept it closed.

“Rosen? Wenna?” Jeff stepped carefully towards the straw pile. “Don’t be afraid.” He paused for a moment, chest swelling a bit with pride. “We’re here to rescue you.”

Chapter Six

An explosion of shouts, shrieks, and screams erupted in ever-increasing quantity as the six battered figures came into view of the gate and the villagers caught sight of them. Within moments the entire population of Wyrm had surrounded the two girls, joy and tears in equal measure on all sides.

“That was worth it,” Jeff said with no small satisfaction.

“Damn straight,” Derek agreed, and the other two nodded.

“Let’s get to our quarters,” Shad suggested. “I’m about used up.”

Berriman caught up with them as they crossed the small village square. “My friends, you have our eternal thanks. I will gather your reward at once.”

Jeff waved a blood-stained hand. “Forget the reward, we were honored to do it. What would be nice is if we could get a hot bath, some clothes washed, and a hot meal. Not a feast, just a meal.”

The smith’s surprise was plain. “Yes…of course, anything. We owe you a great debt....”

“If it is all right, we would like to rest here for three days,” Shad interjected. “We took wounds and battering in the fight, and while we were able to Heal our physical injuries, the wear on the body is substantial. We will depart on the fourth day-we don’t want to be a burden.”

“You are no burden-you are heroes. I will make arrangements…thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

Fred dumped his pack next to his stacked gear and leaned his axe against the cow shed’s wall. “Good to be back. A bath would be great.”

“We could have accepted the reward,” Derek pointed out.

“Look at this place-it would have been a few Marks in small change,” Shad shrugged. “This way we get three days’ worth of bed and board for free, and a friendly bolt-hole if we ever need to lay low. Friends are more important than petty cash.”

“OK.” Derek’s greed in gaming was legendary, yet oddly absent in his real life. From the looks of it he was struggling between modes.

“What about the loot we got out of the chest? When do you want to divvy that?” Jeff asked.

“Tomorrow, when Derek can give it the once over. You do have Detect Magic, right?” Shad asked the Shadowmancer.

“And Identify, and Detect Curse.”

“Good.”

Bathed and fed, Shad sat at the borrowed table and slowly worked on his charms.

“Man, I can’t believe we did a dungeon crawl,” Derek grinned from his perch on a nearby pile of firewood.

“I’m a bit surprised we survived,” Jeff said from where he sprawled on a blanket in the sun. “And that we were only in there for three hours or so. Seemed like days.”

Fred’s contribution was his snoring echoing in the shed.

“I didn’t think we were going to make it out when that bugbear popped up. Good thing we caught the Goblins out of their armor,” Derek shook his head.

“You did good work with your bow. Shad, how are we on charms?”

“Not too bad. I used less than I’ve made recently, but before we leave here I’m going to have to re-issue the insect charms again. Notice the way the girls scratched? We missed out on a healthy dose of Goblin-bred body lice.”

“Ugh,” Derek shuddered, and took a pull from his mug.

“I keep four on hand at all times,” Shad reassured him. “I figure I can crank out close to twenty charms before we leave here. Once I get enough of a supply built up I won’t need to take so much downtime.”

“I’m OK with downtime,” Jeff sighed. “That goat stew was pretty damn good.”

“OK, first things first,” The four were seated around a blanket spread on the floor of the cow shed watching Derek sort the loot. “We got thirty-one Marks and change. What’s the split?”

“How about seven each and the rest in the kitty?” Jeff suggested.

“We’re in pretty good shape,” Derek admitted. “We didn’t buy anything other than rations and a few items.”

“Sounds good,” Shad agreed. “But how about we put what we get from the sale of the jewelry into the party fund?”

That was acceptable.

“Now, we have four magical items: two potions of Healing, a ring which adds a small bonus to the effects of worn armor, and an enchanted dirk.” Derek held up the weapon, whose blade looked like Damascus steel with reddish highlights. “It’s Dwarven forged and the enchantment adds a little damage. Plus the blade won’t rust or dull.”

“Potions to the party fund,” Jeff shrugged. “Standard policy. Shad and Derek each carry one.”

No one objected. “OK, you can drink it or pour it directly on the wound. Drinking is more efficient but pouring it is better for arterial or major bleeding,” Derek passed the potion, which was in a short length of cow’s horn with a cork stopper, to Shad. “What about the dirk?”

“Jeff fights with a main gauche,” Shad pointed out. “He should get it. The rest of us just carry daggers as back-ups or very close combat.”

Fred nodded, so Derek passed the weapon and scabbard to the Night-grifter. “OK, I can’t use the ring-you have to have armor for it to work. I would suggest Fred, since he’s the key point of the fighting line.” The others nodded.

“OK, that’s it. Money, jewelry, potions, ring, dirk. Not a bad haul.”

“Not bad at all,” Shad agreed. “We learned a bit, got some XP and some loot. We’re a bit better off for the effort.”

“You know, I understand that Yorrian and her asshole buddies had to play by the rules about level, but certainly they could have loaded us up with some magical hardware,” Jeff slid his main guache’s scabbard off his belt and slid the scabbard for his new dirk in its place.

“I think they’re playing the numbers game,” Derek scowled. “They’re throwing group after group at the intruders and counting on the law of averages. Sooner or later they’ll send in a group who knows what they are doing or gets lucky.”

“Two are down from seven, so as an abstract idea its working,” Shad conceded. “As one of the numbers in the equation, I think it sucks.”

Their departure was a prolonged affair. The entire village turned out with presents of food and ale, so much so that Berriman had to step in and curtail some of it as the four and Ula could not carry away all of it. The smith himself presented each of the four with a fine sheath knife of his own creation as a personal thanks.

“That was nice,” Derek observed as they trudged down the road, forest pressing in on either side.

“Yeah,” Shad said through a mouthful of pork chop.

“You got a thing for pork chops?” Jeff asked.

“Yeah. These are pretty damn good knives by any standard.”

“Fred and me got those codes written out,” Derek slapped his pack. “We need to keep an eye out for a buyer.”

“Too bad we don’t get XP for innovation,” Jeff observed.

“Who says we don’t?” Derek shrugged.

“I hope you’re right.”

They followed the road through the woods and continued on into the hills; that passage wasn’t completely without incident as two spiders the size of compact sedans attacked them from the trees. Fred slew one, while the other fell to a combination of efforts by the other three.

The value of Ula was rapidly growing in their estimates. Besides warning them of the spiders’ approach (it was not her fault they did not realize the source of her agitation) the little jenny, who appeared to have grown fond of Derek, kept pace easily despite her load and the slopes.

“She’s a tough little thing,” Shad rubbed Ula between her ears and then moved a bit upstream from where Jeff was washing his feet to fill his canteen. “Damn, the water’s cold for summer.”

“It’s nice,” Jeff took another long drink. “Looks like its coming off the high slopes.”

“I’m just glad to be out of the trees,” Derek shuddered. “I don’t mind spiders as long as they aren’t the size of a Herford bull. Plus I’m really low on useable arrows.”

“Yeah, we’re still in the learning phase,” Shad sat of the bank of the stream and began work on a charm.

“That’s a knife,” Derek observed.

Shad held up the knife, which had a narrow, sharply pointed blade and a tang covered with a single wrapping of leather cord. “Yeah, I put the charm on the knife, and I can throw it…well, like in the movies. Only forty feet, but they’re pretty handy. I’m going to tack the scabbards to the inside of my shield when I get enough charmed to be worthwhile.”

“Cool. Can anyone use ‘em? ”

“Not the charm, unfortunately.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Jeff dried his feet and applied talc. “We ought to keep an ear open for news about Yorrian. We don’t owe that bitch a thing and it might be useful to know something about the other side of the equation.”

“A very good idea,” Shad nodded. “Derek, that’s your field-she’s definitely some sort of spellcaster.”

“Got it,” The Shadowmancer mumbled, reading a dossier.